Near Field Communications, or NFC, allows for wireless communication between two devices in close proximity to each other. Existing NFC devices provide limited functionality for contactless payments using a “digital wallet,” but are restrictive and difficult to implement for a number of reasons.
Current digital wallet solutions require channeling all transactions through a defined group of stakeholders, thus increasing cost and complexity of each transaction. Further, current digital wallet solutions require that a mobile device be pre-manufactured with specific hardware already included, thus excluding hundreds of millions of existing devices from using a digital wallet solution.
Moreover, current proximity attachments, such as key finders or fobs, provide a proximity “attachment”, enabling a proximity connection to, for example, a mobile device. But these key finders do not have payment capabilities. The key finders also are not tied to bank security.
These and other drawbacks exist.